


Cupcakes are always the answer

by hkandi



Category: Naruto
Genre: Baking, Cupcakes, Discord: Umino Hours, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Iruka's apartment is the place to be, Iruka's kitchen attire (largely thanks to Naruto), M/M, Naruto is Just Naruto, Parent Umino Iruka, Those decorations though..., Wash up when done, You can cook but you can't bake, fun with clones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:22:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23109934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hkandi/pseuds/hkandi
Summary: Naruto decides that homemade cupcakes are the way to Sakura's heart, surely she'll finally accept a date from him then, right? So he gets his current and former senseis to help. Who knew he'd also be helping them in whatever it is they're dancing around with each other?
Relationships: (referenced), Haruno Sakura/Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 12
Kudos: 137





	Cupcakes are always the answer

**Author's Note:**

> Written based off pictures posted in the Umino Hours discord about the three of them baking, and conversations about who can really cook what.
> 
> I don't think I've done much in terms of writing a story based off one or more pictures in a while....
> 
> This was also written as stress relief for myself, so...yeah...

(I don't own any characters etc etc)

Iruka rubbed his temples as he approached his front door, his head was starting to hurt. It had been a long day, and all he wanted was to get inside, change out of his uniform, make some light dinner, and RELAX.

When he heard voices on the other side of his door, however, he sighed. It was not going to be one of those nights.

Now, normally, a shinobi coming home and hearing voices when their apartment should otherwise be empty based on them living alone….well, that would raise flags.

For Iruka, it meant that Naruto had used his spare key again, so Iruka couldn’t really fault him. 

The question was, instead, who had he brought with this time?

Hoping it wasn’t Shino, because Iruka had found bugs in his place for two weeks after he left, he took a deep breath.

Okay, and maybe it wouldn’t be Kiba either…Akamaru was a great dog, but man did he shed.

Iruka opened the door and called out.

“Whoever’s here, I’m home! So, either finish stealing from me or come kill me!” he said as he toed off his sandals and placed his bag and vest in their usual spots. He was in no rush, really.

“Iruka-sensei!” Naruto bellowed. “You’re home! Finally!”

“Finally why? Or do I not want to know?” Iruka shouted back, flipping through his mail. Nothing new.

He realized that Naruto (and whoever else) was in the kitchen. Pursing his lips, he tried to brace himself for the worst.

Naruto, bless his heart, was not the best in the kitchen, but Iruka tried to support him regardless. Even if that meant eating less than great food. (But especially if it meant getting Naruto to eat something other than ramen!)

“Hello, Naruto,” he said cheerfully, as he ruffled the boy’s hair.

“Yo,” a voice said, and Iruka turned.

Kakashi was sat at his kitchen table, back to the wall, feet up on another chair. Iruka frowned at the feet, but Kakashi didn’t seem to notice. Or chose to ignore. Iruka wouldn’t put it past him.

“Kakashi-sensei,” Iruka said, nodding at him. “What brings you both here tonight?”

“I wanted to ask Sakura out ---” Naruto began.

“Again,” Iruka interjected.

“And I thought I should ask with something sweet,” Naruto continued, rummaging through Iruka’s cupboards.

Iruka crossed his arms and frowned. “So you decided to come to my place for it? Why not go to a bakery?”

“It’s more special if you make it yourself!” Naruto cried, looking at Iruka. “That’s what you always say!”

Iruka blushed, realizing Kakashi was still in the room. “Well, that’s true…but a bakery would be easier, no? And then you wouldn’t have to drag Kakashi-sensei out of his way…haven’t I heard you don’t even like sweets?” he said to his guest.

Kakashi shrugged. “True, I don’t really eat sweets, but I was still invited to come along and help, due to my fine sense of smell.”

Iruka laughed. “Sounds like Naruto thought of everything?”

The men looked at each other for a moment longer before Iruka turned his gaze back to Naruto. Sure, they had spent time hanging out with Team 7, and would chat here and there at the missions desk…and maybe they were overly friendly, dare he say even flirty, at times…but this was the first time Kakashi had been to Iruka’s apartment like this.

Iruka was only too grateful he had straightened up the night before.

As he moved to help Naruto look for whatever it was he was looking for, he found that the sight of Kakashi sitting comfortably in his kitchen was not unwelcomed.  
Iruka’s stomach felt funny…

To try to divert his thoughts, he mumbled something to Naruto.

“What was that?” Naruto asked.

Iruka sighed. “I said, you know I’m not a great baker. I’m a decent cook, but not a baker.”

“Maa, sensei, I thought you love sweets?” Kakashi asked.

Iruka began to think through the jutsus he knew that could make his kitchen floor swallow him whole.

“I do,” he said, blushing, “I’m just not very good at making them. It’s probably for the best,” he admitted, laughing and patting his stomach.

Kakashi studied him with his visible eye, otherwise not moving, and Iruka felt his face burn.

”Aha!” Naruto said, pulling out things from his cupboards.

“Cake mix?” Kakashi asked.

Iruka threw his hands up. “It’s the best I can ever do if I need to bake…Naruto, are you sure Sakura would want cupcakes from a box? We have plenty of time to go to the bakery down the street.”

“No! We’re making cupcakes at home, and then she’ll go out with me! Believe it!”

Iruka laughed but shook his head. “Ok, fine, fine.” He paused. “Wait, what? We? How did I get roped into this?”

“It’s your kitchen, Iruka-sensei!” Naruto said, shrugging. Iruka looked to Kakashi for help, but he also shrugged.

“Kid has a point,” he said, cheerfully.

“You’re not helping, Kakashi-sensei,” Iruka said, and turned to focus on Naruto.

Kakashi sat back and watched them. If you had asked him that morning where he would be right now, being with Iruka anywhere other than Ichiraku’s or the missions office would have not been something even a genius like him could have predicted. Much less Iruka’s apartment…or sitting in his very nice, comfortable kitchen.

Kakashi’s mind began to whir. He quite liked the younger man but they had danced around each other for a bit….or perhaps Kakashi wasn’t quite as good at flirting as he thought he was?

In short, Kakashi thought, fate had dropped this opportunity right in his lap, and he couldn’t waste it.

As Kakashi ruminated, Naruto and Iruka got out the few ingredients they needed, as the box mix didn’t require much.

Iruka passed a cupcake tray and liners to Naruto and nodded.

“Ready?” he asked the blond, who nodded, then paused.

“Iruka-sensei! We need our aprons!” he shouted.

Iruka really, really wanted the ground to swallow him. Or maybe he could escape out his kitchen window? Claim he left something at the academy?

“Uh, Naruto, you can just wear yours,” Iruka said, reaching into a drawer and pulling out an orange apron. “I’m okay in my uniform.”

“No, sensei!” Naruto said, tying his apron and crossing his arms. “You have to wear yours, too!”

“I don’t think that’s fully necessary, Naruto,” Iruka protested.

‘Tell him, sensei!” Naruto said, now turning to Kakashi for help. “Iruka-sensei always wears his apron when we cook together! He has to now too!”

Iruka shook his head at Kakashi, silently pleading for help.

Instead, his stomach dropped as Kakashi’s visible eye began to close and turn into his trademark eye smile.

“Oh, sensei, you wouldn’t want to make Naruto sad, now would you? Then Sakura-kun’s cupcakes may not turn out right…”

Iruka clenched his jaw. “Thank you for your consideration,” he said between gritted teeth.

Defeated, he sighed and turned back to the drawer, pulling out his apron, and putting it on, tying it behind his back.

He took a deep breath before turning around, knowing that he would never live it down to the older man.

“There goes any chance I could have ever had with him,” Iruka sighed to himself.

Kakashi drank in the sight of Iruka, in shinobi blues, minus his vest, wearing a semi-bright green apron. With a blue dolphin in the front, on top of a lighter blue circle.

Iruka noticed Kakashi staring and blushed, putting his hands in the front pockets of his apron.

“Everybody happy now?” he sighed.

Naruto cheered and began to open the box.

“You have a dolphin on your apron, isn’t that nice?” Kakashi said, teasingly. 

“Just like your name!” Naruto agreed.

Iruka rolled his eyes. “And Kakashi-sensei’s name means scarecrow, too bad we don’t have anything that looks like that for him,” he retorted. “We could stick him in a field,” he mumbled.

Iruka rolled his eyes and turned to help Naruto.

Satisfied their backs were turned to him, Kakashi did some hand seals, before a clone appeared before him.

“Yo,” he said, looking around curiously.

“Get me these things from the market, would you?” Kakashi said quietly, writing a quick list and passing it and money to his clone, who sighed but jutsued away.

Kakashi sat back. Part one of his plan in action, he thought, satisfied. He kept his book in front of him, but his eyes trained on Iruka, lifting his eye protector at one point to record two of his favorite people in such a familial moment.

_______

Some time later, Naruto put the tray into the oven.

“Done!” he cheered. “That wasn’t hard at all!”

“Because you used a mix, and added like three ingredients,” Iruka said, rolling his eyes. “You just took forever to stir it together.”

“They need to be perfect for Sakura!” Naruto protested.

“Yeah yeah, let’s wash up,” Iruka said. He heard something over his shoulder and turned…to see two Kakashis standing by his kitchen? Suddenly, one dispersed.

“What the --?” Iruka began.

Kakashi shrugged. “What?”

“Wasn’t….and you…never mind,” Iruka sighed. He spotted a brown bag on his table. “What’s that?”

“Ah, I sent out for some support,” Kakashi said. Iruka raised an eyebrow at him as he helped Naruto start to wash dishes.

“Maa, I don’t like sweets, and it is dinner time, so I thought I’d send out for some groceries for dinner.”

“You’re making us dinner?” Iruka asked, surprised.

Kakashi shrugged. “Sure, why not?” He began to pull out items. “Miso soup, grilled saury. AKA the best dinner ever invented.”

Naruto snorted. “After ramen, maybe.”

“You clearly haven’t had my miso soup yet,” Kakashi shot back. “It’s delicious.”

“Kakashi-sensei, you don’t have to…you’re a guest in my house,” Iruka said.

“It’s no trouble, sensei, just wait,” Kakashi said, pulling out a pot and another pan. “Anyway, the oven is already on for baking, so why not?”

And that was how Iruka found himself watching the copy nin salting fish, in his kitchen, on a Wednesday night.

As the fish was ready to go in the oven, the cupcakes were ready to be taken out.

“Perfect timing,” Iruka admitted. He grabbed oven mitts to take out the cupcakes.

“Purple mitts?” Kakashi asked, as Iruka passed him.

“I know, they clash,” Iruka sighed. “But they were a present…”

“From me!” Naruto shouted. “They have dolphins on them! Just like his apron!” And to Kakashi’s amusement, Iruka waved at him to show that yes, his purple mitts did in fact have a large blue dolphin on the outside of each mitt.

“Okay Naruto, these have to stay in the pan to cool, then we can take them out later,” Iruka said, setting the tray down.

“We can frost them after dinner!” Naruto said, excited.

Iruka slapped his forehead. “I don’t have any frosting! We should have thought about that sooner! Maybe we can run out to the grocery store ---”

Kakashi interrupted. “Naruto, check in the bag,” he said, nodding towards the bag his clone had deposited.

Naruto looked in, and cheered. “Kakashi-sensei got us frosting and decorations! These are going to be the best cupcakes ever, believe it!”

Iruka smiled at Kakashi. “You thought of everything, huh?”

Kakashi was grateful his mask hid his blush and shrugged, turning his attention back to the fish.

___________

Once dinner was cooked, Kakashi insisted on serving, though they made Naruto help set the table.

Over dinner, Iruka listened while Naruto talked about Team 7’s recent training exercises, with Kakashi adding commentary here and there. 

“That was exceptionally good soup, I have to admit,” Iruka said to Kakashi. “What’s your secret?”

“Maa, I can’t give out my secret ingredient. Every cook has one,” he said.

“Really?” Naruto asked, wide-eyed.

The older men nodded.

“Mine’s usually arsenic,” Iruka whispered loudly, and Kakashi chuckled. “Or so I tell the naughty children at school….and bad dates…”

“Ah, so if you offer to cook for someone, it’s a sign the relationship isn’t going well?” Kakashi asked, suddenly more interested than he had been.

Iruka blushed. “Only if I offer to bake from scratch for them,” he said, laughing.

They did the dishes, and Iruka turned to Naruto. “Shall we take the cupcakes out of the tray?”

Naruto whooped and ran over to them, helping Iruka remove the cupcakes.

A dozen chocolate cupcakes, in colorful bright wrappers with a white diamond design, sat in front of them.

“Let’s see what we have to decorate with,” Iruka said, as they pulled out the decorations. He and Naruto organized them, and Iruka showed Naruto how to make the store-bought vanilla frosting silky-smooth, perfect for piping onto the cupcakes.

“I thought you can’t bake,” Kakashi observed.

Iruka grinned. “I can’t, but it doesn’t mean I don’t know how to cheat! Here,” he said, passing a piping bag to Kakashi, who accepted it but stared at it.

“What am I doing with this?”

“Helping, duh,” Naruto said, sighing loudly. 

“I’m sure a master of one thousand jutsus such as yourself has some knowledge of how to ice cupcakes,” Iruka scoffed.

Kakashi narrowed his eye at Iruka playfully. “Of course.”

And so they spent time frosting the cakes, Kakashi on one side of the table, Naruto and Iruka on the other.

Iruka frosted three cupcakes, before sitting back and watching Naruto. He crossed his arms and laughed, the boy was more focused than usual, wanting to get the cakes just so.

“Maybe we should help you,” Iruka offered, and Naruto looked at him in surprise. “Uh…you seem to have put barely any on your first cupcake, and maybe a bit too much on this second one…” Iruka said, motioning to the cakes. “Why don’t we start over, and balance it out a bit?”

Naruto agreed, and soon they had all the cupcakes perfectly frosted.

“How many do you want to give Sakura?” Iruka asked. “All of them?”

Naruto thought about it. “That might be a bit much. Maybe, four?”

“Sure,” Iruka said, and passed decorations to Naruto.

Kakashi and Naruto watched as Naruto carefully decorated them, placing chocolate slices, pink hearts, and even white chocolate naruto slices on them.

“Where did you even find those?” Iruka asked, motioning to the naruto slices.

Kakashi shrugged. “I know people.” 

They decorated a few more, leaving some with only frosting, and helped Naruto package up the ones he wanted to give Sakura.

“Good luck, Naruto,” Iruka said, as the blond was leaving for the night. “Be sure to tell me all about it!”

“Of course, Iruka-sensei! Thanks for dinner, Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto called, leaving.

Iruka laughed as he closed his door, and turned around.

He paused. It was just him and Kakashi, in his apartment, by himself.

He tried to will away the blush he felt creeping up his face.

Fortunately, Kakashi had headed back into the kitchen first, and Iruka took a moment to collect himself.

When he entered the kitchen again, Kakashi was back at the table, busying himself.

Iruka moved to the opposite side of the kitchen to make tea, not thinking anything of it. As he came back to the table and set a mug down for Kakashi, the older man pushed a cupcake towards him.

It had little red candy dots on it, and a blue gummy dolphin sitting on top.

Iruka smiled and laughed. “Did you decorate that just for me? It’s cute.”

Kakashi laughed and gave him a closed-eye smile. “Just for you. To match everything else in your kitchen.”

Iruka blushed, but their gazes remained locked for a moment.

“Do you want one too? Let me get it,” Iruka said, standing and heading to the counter behind them where the remaining cupcakes were on a plate.

As he was about to turn back, he felt a presence behind him.

Kakashi had decided to chance it, and slunk up behind him, snaking his right arm around Iruka’s waist, and his left arm draped over Iruka’s right shoulder, essentially gently hugging the brunette to him.

Iruka blushed but didn’t move. “Are you that eager for cupcakes?” he asked quietly.

“Cupcakes, or something else sweet. Like a person who gives up their weeknight to help someone make cupcakes, and doesn’t mind that someone else tagged along.”

“I thought Naruto dragged you here, and you were just being polite,” Iruka said, shyly.

“I would be crazy to pass on an opportunity to spend time with you,” Kakashi said, and Iruka realized how close his voice was to his ear.

“I….uh….should we see how these are?” Iruka said, at a loss for words. He unwrapped part of a cupcake and held it up in his left hand towards the right side of his face, where Kakashi’s voice was coming from.

He felt the man chew. “I can barely taste the arsenic,” Kakashi purred into Iruka’s ear.

Iruka laughed. “It wasn’t a bad date, so…”

“Hmm,” Kakaskhi hummed. “I’ll take that as a good sign,” he said, bringing his gloved left hand to Iruka’s chin, and guiding his face towards his own.

Iruka closed his eyes and felt soft lips on his own, deepening the kiss a moment later.

When they pulled apart, Iruka set the cupcake he was still holding down and ran a tongue over his own lips.

“The cupcakes do taste good,” Kakashi said, laughing, as he turned in Iruka in his arms.

Iruka kept his gaze on the man’s chest, until Kakashi lifted his chin to look at his face.

In shock, Iruka’s brain tried to process everything and still say something.

“Your team will be so jealous I’ve seen your face,” Iruka murmured.

“They’ll live,” Kakashi smirked.

Iruka’s brain tried to catch up, again.

“Do you always taste so sweet?” he finally asked.

Kakashi smiled, and Iruka near died. “Guess you’ll have to find out,” he said, as they leaned in for another kiss.


End file.
